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Variability in Population Density Is Paralleled by Large Differences in Foraging Efficiency in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

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Abstract

The assumption that population density restricts the foraging efficiency of individuals in the population via increased competition for resources underpins socioecological models of female social relationships in primates. We examined this assumption by comparing quantitative measures of foraging efficiency in two communities of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) that inhabit the same contiguous forest in Kibale National Park, Uganda, but differ substantially in size and density. To calculate net caloric gain rates (our measure of foraging efficiency) we obtained data directly from focal follows of individual chimpanzees on 1) residency time in a feeding patch, 2) feeding rate in the patch, 3) the nutrient content of the items fed upon, and 4) the distance walked between feeding patches. We collected foraging efficiency data over 1059 h at Ngogo and 961 h at Kanyawara. We found that individuals in the high-density community (Ngogo) had higher mean foraging efficiency values than those in the low-density community (Kanyawara), and that foraging efficiency varied less over time at Ngogo when assessed over the time scales of individual feeding/traveling bouts and of daily net caloric gain rates. Fluctuation in net caloric gain rates on a monthly time scale was greater at Ngogo than at Kanyawara, but this was likely due to the nutritional effects of a mast fruiting event by one of the most important species at the site. These findings suggest that high population density at Ngogo has not precluded high foraging efficiency. The classic view of increased population density inevitably increasing feeding competition and reducing foraging efficiency likely underemphasizes the ability of primates, especially those in rich habitats, to maximize caloric intake.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Uganda Wildlife Authority and Uganda National Council of Science and Technology for granting us permission to conduct research in Uganda, and the Makerere University Biological Field Station administration for allowing us access to both the Ngogo and Kanyawara field sites in Kibale. We are grateful to the editors and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on previous versions of this article. K. B. Potts thanks the LSB Leakey Foundation, Wenner Gren Foundation, American Society of Primatology, and Yale University for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55454, USA

    Kevin B. Potts

  2. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, 50011, USA

    Erica Baken

  3. Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, 10315, Berlin, Germany

    Sylvia Ortmann

  4. Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511, USA

    David P. Watts

  5. Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA

    Richard W. Wrangham

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  1. Kevin B. Potts
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  2. Erica Baken
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  3. Sylvia Ortmann
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  4. David P. Watts
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  5. Richard W. Wrangham
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Correspondence to Kevin B. Potts.

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Potts, K.B., Baken, E., Ortmann, S. et al. Variability in Population Density Is Paralleled by Large Differences in Foraging Efficiency in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Int J Primatol 36, 1101–1119 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-015-9880-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-015-9880-y

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